


While You Were Sleeping

by shinythings



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Christmas Fluff, Erica Reyes & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Human Issac, Human Scott, Human Vernon Boyd, M/M, Sterek endgame, Werewolves, While You Were Sleeping AU, dangerous christmas trees, human cora and erica, no hunter/werewolf shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 00:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2832197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinythings/pseuds/shinythings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erica has amnesia, Stiles falls in love. Not just with her, but with Hale family too. Enter Derek, leather wearing dork in badboy clothing. Will Stiles and Erica sort out their confusing relationship and end up with the people they really want to be with? Hint: They will.</p>
<p>This is an AU which is very loosely based on the movie While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock...love..miscommunication..shenanigans..happy ending).</p>
            </blockquote>





	While You Were Sleeping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [qhuinn (tekla)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tekla/gifts).



> Because of the movie, I made a few changes...mostly since you know...werewolves.  
> Also...given Beacon Hills' track record with subways/trains- have a fair instead.  
> A lot of characters are human (Scott and his pack) since I wanted Stiles to be surprised by werewolves.  
> Unfortunately...there no explicit sexy times in this fic .

Stiles ran. He was close, so close. Another left turn and he would be there, mostly on time. He sped past the parked cars, tripped over an empty coke can and wind milled into a waiting Scott.

“Dude! Where have you been? Allison’s been covering for you.”

Stiles righted himself and walked up to his ticket booth, “Roscoe broke down. Left him at the side of the road, called dad and then ran the rest of the way. At least it gave out past the woods or I’d never have gotten here. Hey Ally!”

“Stiles, you owe me. Also, don’t call me that.” Scott grinned at his girlfriend as she hopped out the booth and into the fair, presumably to the ferris wheel to help Issac.

“Um…excuse me?” Both boys turned to see the two youngest Hale children staring up at them with wide eyes. The Hales lived in huge house in the woods by the fair. Stiles was used to seeing various members of the Hale clan wandering through the fair. The kids wondered around after school and Talia and her husband Daniel seemed to have some sort of obsession with the pirate ship. Hey Stiles wasn’t judging, pirates were cool. He smiled at the kids and handed them two ticket stubs. Baby Hales got in for free. Anna and Michael ran through excitedly, screaming their thanks. Stiles often wondered what if might be like to live with so many people. Anna and Michael were only two of Talia’s children. Cora was in the same year as Stiles at school and Derek and Laura were both older. Derek had left home for university a few years ago, not that his absence made much difference to the number of people running around the Hale house. The town and the woods always seemed to be overrun by Hale cousins and friends.

Thinking of the Hales seemed to summon them. Cora bounced up to them with Erica on her arm. Erica had once punched a boy in the face for calling Cora names, and Cora had returned the favour when people had starting laughing at Erica after she had a seizure. The two had been inseparable ever since. “…But the house is going to be full. Derek’s coming back and he’s bringing Boyd. Ugh, and Uncle Peter’s coming too…Oh hey Stiles, did Anna and Michael already go through?” Stiles nodded and held his hand out. She sighed and nudged Erica, who rolled her eyes and handed him a few coins.

“Ladies,” Stiles nodded his head and let them through. Erica smirked at his shirt, “See you later Batman!” He blushed. His crush on Erica was fairly recent, stemming mostly from his realisation that she was as massive a nerd as he was. She’d watched Star Wars…unlike some people Stiles could mention…namely Scott...

The day went quickly as more people came through the fair. The Beacon Hills Fair saw some traffic from out of town visitors, but most of the fair’s customers were residents of the surrounding town,  who seemed to use the fair and its grounds as everything from a picnic spot to the memorable time it was used by students to film an amateur post-apocalyptic movie. Scott and Stiles had gleefully volunteered to be extras in the hoard of the undead.

The boys closed their booths as the last visitors trailed out the entrance that night. They headed towards the bumper cars, seeing Lydia and Jackson, as well as Allison and Issac already in the cars, loudly banging into each other. Everyone once in a while, they would stay past closing time and use some of the rides that they usually put people in. Scott bounced over to the others while Stiles stood apart and watched his friends. They were all paired up, or well threed-up in the case of Allison, Issac and Scott. Stiles was lonely. Sure he had friends, he had the best friends (Jackson included but Stiles would deny it if anyone asked) and he had his Dad, but he wanted someone to be there and help him make breakfast and kiss goodnight. Seeing his friends always made him happy, but sometimes, like tonight, it also reminded him that he didn’t have an other half to take home and snuggle. He shook himself out of his daze and sighed at Scott’s raised eyebrow. Stiles nodded at an empty car and jumped into it, “We might as well show them how it’s done!”

He insisted he didn’t need a ride home. It was a warm night and a walk would let him burn off energy that would only keep him up past two if he let it. He plugged in his headphones and made his way past the car park and down the road he’d run up that morning. As he neared the spot where he abandoned the jeep, he heard a car. Later, Stiles would think that everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The car came down the road, a deer stepped out the woods, the car swerved, Stiles screamed, and the car hit a tree. It took him a few seconds to process, ears ringing and feet taking him scrambling towards the car. He recognised it. It was the tiny Beetle that Cora had driven everywhere since she got her license. The front had wrapped itself around the tree and Stiles stumbled forward till he got to the doors. He could see Erica and Cora, both still in their seats, with their heads slumped forward. The car door seemed stuck but gave way on the third pull. He unclipped Cora’s seatbelt and pulled her out, laying her on the ground. “Cora?! Cora!” Panicking he left her and pulled Erica out, calling her name to no response. Stiles finally came to his senses and pulled out his phone. The ambulance would come.

\---

Stiles visited them, of course he did. The Sheriff dropped him off on Tuesdays while the jeep was being fixed. Talia was always there, waiting for him coffee. Cora’s family kept a not so silent vigil over the two girls, and Stiles often found himself with a lap full of tiny, yawning cousins. Anna and Michael were too old for lap sits, but Stiles made sure to distract them from the fact that Cora and Erica just weren’t waking up. Laura had taken to dropping off salads as a thank you, the Sheriff was not amused.

It was on a Tuesday that Erica woke. Talia had popped out for more coffee. Stiles was holding down the fort, keeping an eye on four year Malia (another cousin…man these Hales were not imaginative were they?…Talia, Malia, Laura, Cora…) Machines started beeping and Stiles looked up to see Erica’s eyes open and panic stricken,“St-Stiles?”

“Hey, hey you’re ok. It’s ok. You’re in the hospital, you hurt your head. Cora’s in the bed next to you, look. You’re ok.”

Erica lifted a hand; he took it trying to calm her. “What happened?”

“There was a crash, Cora was driving. A deer came out of nowhere and you two ended up in a tree. I’m glad you’re ok Catwoman.”

Erica looked confused, “I can’t remember the crash. All I remember is sitting down to dinner with Cora… Derek was there too. So was Boyd.”

Stiles frowned, Derek and Boyd hadn’t been in Beacon Hills for the last few months. They planned to come back for Christmas. Derek had wanted to come back earlier when he heard about the crash; they’d be arriving in a week.

“Erica…that was months ago…oh god no stop panicking. I didn’t mean to make you panic!”

Talia came back in just as Erica calmed down. “Erica! Thank god!”

“Mrs Hale,” Stiles nodded at Talia. Now that Erica was awake, Stiles felt like he intruding. Erica wasn’t a Hale, but they had practically adopted her once they realised that Cora had imprinted on her like a duckling. Talia hovered over her like a mother and Stiles felt his throat go tight at the memory of his own.

He moved to the door but Erica stopped him, “Stiles no, stay. Please?”

Talia raised an eyebrow, Stiles shrugged. Doctors came in poked and prodded the patient. Through all of it, Stiles sat by her and held her hand, even when it felt like she might break his own in her panic.

“You’ll come back and visit? She takes comfort from you,” Talia stood with him outside the girls’ room once Erica had given in to sleep.

Malia, who had been suspiciously quiet the entire time, finally piped up, “Don’t be silly Aunty Tali, Stiles loves Erica. They’re Batman and Catwoman!”

“Really now?” Talia smirked. Stiles was blushing. He had no idea how Malia’s words would shape the next few months.

\---

Erica was finally released home, well into the Hale home anyway. Stiles kept her company, took her back to the hospital to see a still comatose Cora. He became a fixture at the house, took Anna and Michael to the fair when he wasn’t working, played hide and seek in the woods with Malia (she always won…he didn’t understand how she always found him…) Dinner at the Hale house was something of a feeding frenzy, and after, the children piled up on each other in front of the fire like a pack of puppies. When he mentioned it to Erica, she’d had a coughing fit and Laura dropped a plate laughing.

Stiles took Erica to the fair too, he won her a stuffed cat while Allison and Lydia looked on with smirks. Ally and Lydia wouldn’t know subtlety if it danced around naked in front of them. At least they weren’t as bad as the Sheriff who insisted on giving Stiles the talk. They couldn’t look each other in the eye for a week after.

The stuffed cat turned into dinner at the diner for two and tickets to The Avengers. They were walking out, arguing over Iron Man and Captain America when Erica stopped him.

“I know I can’t remember some stuff....but this feels good. I keep getting glimpses of someone laughing, and it makes me feel, well…happy. I think it’s you. Is that ok?”

Stiles nodded. He hadn’t hung out with Erica a lot before the accident, but maybe this meant that she’d been noticing him as much as he’d been noticing her? Either way, he hadn’t felt this good in a long time, and Erica seemed happy too.

\---

Derek and Boyd rolled into Beacon Hills a day later. Stiles was in the house, trapped beneath Malia and Anna when he heard the front door open.

“Mom? Erica? I’m home, who’s the new hum….Oh. Um…Hi?”

Stiles peered up at Derek from the floor and made a move a to get up, but Malia, sweet evil Malia, stayed put on his stomach even as Anna threw herself at her brother with a screech.

“Der-der! You’re home! And you brought Boyd! Do you want cookies? I made them! Stiles and Erica helped!”

A bemused Boyd was dragged away as Stiles continued to struggle with Malia till Derek huffed out a laugh and scooped her up. “We don’t sit on people, Malia.”

“But Stiles is comfy! He’s all squishy!”

“Hey!” Stiles poked his tongue out while Derek raised an eyebrow (all Hales had strong eyebrow game).

“Stiles Stilinski? The Sheriff’s son?”

“Yup! That’s me! How’d you know my dad? Did he arrest you once or something? I bet he did. That leather jacket makes you look like a scruffy delinquent.” Oh my god. He was rambling. Why was he rambling? He wasn’t even nervous, was he? It was just Derek. Derek, who admittedly looked like he belonged in a biker gang, what with the stubble and the jeans and the boots and the leather jacket. On the other hand, the jacket was too long in the sleeve and it made him look he’d stolen his Dad’s clothes. It was adorable. Stiles would like his brain to stop now. At least Derek looked mildly amused by his outburst.

“No…he didn’t arrest me…I talked to him about joining the sheriff’s department after university. He seems like he’d made a good boss.” 

Malia, bored by the talk, not so gently kicked Derek. He growled and retaliated by flipping her and tickling mercilessly. Oh god, they were adorable. Stiles couldn’t handle the cute. Thankfully, before he could do something stupid like take his phone out and start filming them, Talia came down the stairs with Erica in tow.

“Oh good, Derek, you’re home!” Talia encircled Malia and her son in her arms, Stiles laughing as he saw Derek wince. Erica leaned forward and kissed his cheek, taking Malia into her arms.

Stiles stayed for dinner, letting Erica steal asparagus off his plate, becoming more and more uncomfortable as Boyd glared at him from across the table. Derek sat by Boyd, torn between looking at his best friend in confusion and keeping up a conversation with Anna and Michael about school. Laura finally distracted Boyd enough to make him laugh, and Stiles felt Erica freeze, a curious expression running across her face.

\---

Derek couldn’t understand why Boyd hated Stiles. They’d never met before, but Boyd smelled like rage and hurt and anger and Derek had no idea what was happening. Stiles himself smelled liked like he’d been rolling around in Derek’s family and Erica. The boy knew nothing about werewolves, but he seemed to be coping with the constant touching and piling that usually happened when you got close to a pack.

-

Erica liked Stiles. He was a nerd, he was funny and smart, and he liked her. Stiles spent time with the Hales, he paid attention to what she liked and Erica felt comfortable. She felt good. But there was just something missing…something at dinner had thrown her. She’d just have to figure out what.

\---

“But dude…It’s like we don’t see you anymore. I miss you. You weren’t home and you said you’d play Halo with me. You promised!” Scott turned the puppy dog eyes up a notch, which usually wouldn’t work (Stiles was immune now), but apparently Allison had learned to pull the face too.  Bottom lip protruding and eyes wide open, she was lethal. Stiles sighed.

“You know, it’s not like you two were any better when you started dating.”

Allison hugged a pillow and made herself comfortable against Stiles’ headboard. “We were adorable. And you basically came on all our dates anyway! Besides, you spend most of your time hanging out with ALL the Hales. Erica doesn’t actually take up that much of your time.”

“They’re just…it’s nice you know. I’m so used to it just being me and dad it’s just fun seeing a family so big.”

“Hey, I know,” Scott bounced like the actual puppy he really was. “Why don’t we all go to the fair? We could go when we’re not working? You can invite the Hales!”

Allison nodded, “That’s not a bad idea.  I want to see what’s so cool about them anyway. We should do it!”

A week later, Stiles arrived at the fair with Scott to find Allison and Issac already canoodling and talking to the guy at the ticket booth. Scott went to up to them and the three of them huddled together hugging in public for too long while Stiles waited for the others.

Lydia showed up with Jackson trailing behind her. Stiles smiled. He didn’t understand these two, but Lydia had tried to explain it to him once. After they had the whole… “Stiles we are never happening because you’re in love with the idea of me.” They were friends now, they studied together. It had gotten to the stage where Prada no longer tried to bite him when he went over. And if Jackson had to be nice to Stiles and Scott because Lydia took care of her friends, well then that was just a bonus.

The Hales arrived together a few minutes later, scrambling out of the woods at the corner of the parking lot.

Laura and Lydia seemed to have some sort of mystical connection, heads bent together while Jackson walked next to them looking confused. Stiles heard snippets of their conversation that included “movie night” and “Love Actually,” “you like maths? I like maths! ...I draw tiny foam formulae in the coffee sometimes…no one ever thinks it’s funny…”

Issac was talking to Erica. They’d bonded years ago over shitty parents and terrible home lives. He’d given Stiles the “hurt her and die” speech before Laura had. Scott and Allison were talking to Boyd about living away from Beacon Hills.

Stiles looked at Derek, who was watching the others with a small smile on his face.

They got into the bumper cars and Allison dominated everyone, as she always did. Issac won a giant teddy bear which Scott carried around for the rest of the day. Lydia terrified everyone by being an incredible shot and Laura surprised everyone (who didn’t know her) by eating a disgusting amount of cotton candy.

Stiles looked at Derek and started giggling. His beard had bits of pink floss stuck to it, probably from when Laura had shoved the last of her cotton candy in his face. Derek’s eyebrow game was still as strong as ever and Stiles laughed and pointed at his face. Watching Derek’s ears turn pink as he ran his hands over his face, only to look down and see bits of candy fluff, just made Stiles smile. Derek Hale, bad boy, defeated by fairground sweets.

Erica climbed onto the ferris wheel with Stiles and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m glad they’re all getting along. It would be nice to do this again. Get everyone together I mean.” He nodded and hummed, looking out through the glass until they’re up above the trees and could see the woods stretching out below them.

It was a good day.

\---

Cora woke up while Stiles was at work. He heard it from Scott who was told by Allison, who was told by Boyd, who found out from Laura, who was told by Derek, who was in the hospital with her. Also, Erica texted him to let him know. They all rushed off to the hospital when their shift at the fair ended.

Cora, thankfully, didn’t have any memory loss, though she did look confused at the presence of Stiles’ friends. Yeah, he wasn’t sure why they came either. Except then he saw Laura’s head drooping onto Lydia’s shoulder, and Allison giving Boyd a hug.

Erica slipped her hand into Stiles’ waiting one and Cora’s eyes tracked the movement, “Wait…it was him?! Stiles is the mystery man who you wouldn’t tell me about?”

Boyd walked out the door to get coffee when Erica nodded and suddenly Stiles feels like something was very, very wrong. Before he could figure out what, Laura started telling Cora about the outing to the fair and the one they later took to the ice rink (Stiles was working that time…apparently Scott and Derek fell on their asses a few times and then bonded over their ability to fail).

Derek meanwhile, seemed to be doing a great impression of dog, head tilted to one side and he stared at Erica. He shook his head when he noticed Stiles watching.

\---

The Sheriff sat at the dinner table and listened to Stiles talk about the Hales. His son seemed animated and content in a way that he hadn’t seen in while. Stiles flailed around the kitchen, somehow managing not to spill his coffee as he pulled out the ingredients for cookies. He rambled on about the picnic that Talia had organised. Scott and the others had showed up and between them and the Hales, had demolished a truly astonishing amount of food. Erica had made cookies, Boyd had eaten most of the hazelnut and chocolate chip ones. Derek had pulled apart each sandwich before he ate it, scowling at his mother and picking out the tomato which Cora then stole off his plate. 

“It sounds like you found good friends, son. How are things with Erica?”

“Good. Yeah, good.”

“It’s just that, well, you don’t really talk about her much. You spend more time talking about the rest of the Hales.”

“No I don’t, I talk about her all the time” Stiles paused and laid aside the cookie cutter.

“Son, you talk about her like you talk about Allison and Lydia, like you’re friends. I guess I just thought you’d be different about someone who was…well… _more_. You used to moon about Erica before, about her hair, and her clothes, the dates you would take her on.”

“Well the Hales are important to her you know, they’re her family. Besides, I like them too.”

The Sheriff held his hands up, “I was just asking. I just want you to be happy.”

Stiles couldn’t sleep. He stared up at his ceiling, thinking about Erica. He liked spending time with her. But his dad was right, he didn’t spend enough time with her alone, and when he did, it felt a lot like spending time with Allison or Lydia. They laughed, they had fun, they held hands, they hugged. Neither of them had attempted to move onto something more serious or physical, they hadn’t kissed yet. Erica was smart, she was beautiful and snarky. Stiles could be happy with her, he _was_ happy with her. But his happiness stemmed more from the fact that she understood him. His day dreams were less of the sexy kind than they were the Stiles and Erica go to Comic Con and have a blast. With sudden clarity Stiles realised that he had made the mistake of crushing on someone without really knowing them…again. Now that he did know Erica, he realised his love was real, but definitely platonic.

He talked to Lydia the next day after work as she drove him home, “Maybe I’m just doomed to be friendzoned my entire life.”

Lydia, unsurprisingly, scoffed at him without taking her eyes off the road. “Don’t be dick. Friendzoning is a shitty construct which implies that you basically only want to hang with women because of sex and that they owe it to you. You know this. Besides, this is different. You became friends with two women who you were infatuated with and then realised that you were more attracted to their friendship than your preconceived ideas of a relationship with them. That’s what you’re saying about Erica isn’t it?”

“I just…I don’t know Lydia. I guess…I just thought…Well, I thought I’d be over the moon about the possibility of having sex when I had a girlfriend. I’m supposed to be aren’t I? But I’m really more excited about just holding her hand and getting ice cream. Is that weird? What do I do?”

Lydia pulled over outside the Sheriff’s Station. “You’re not weird you know. Most of the people in our year who talk about sex haven’t had it…they just lie because they think it makes them look cool. You only have it when you want it…when all people in the relationship want it. You can choose to never have sex if it isn’t your thing, or you can choose to have sex with as many people as you like, Stiles. If you don’t want to take your physical relationship with Erica further and you’re worried about it…talk to her. If you think you’re better off as friends, talk to her. She isn’t going to decide to ignore you forever if you do. And if she does…well, she’s not worth it anyway. Besides, I think she really likes being friends with you anyway.”

“When did you get so smart Lyds?”

“I always have been, asshole,” Lydia ruffled his hair before pushing him out of her car and driving away.

Stiles waited for his dad to finish off his paperwork so they could go get dinner together. He would talk to Erica later and take Lydia’s advice.

\---

Talking to Erica turned out to be harder than Stiles expected. December rolled around and Beacon Hills started preparing for Christmas. Stiles had to pick up extra shifts at the fair and the only chances he really got to see Erica were during the brief moments when she would visit him at the ticketing booth with Cora, Derek and Boyd. She came around for dinner once, and Stiles spent the whole evening tongue tied and embarrassed, forcing Erica to talk to his Dad instead.

Derek and Laura showed up on his doorstep in their dad’s jeep and asked Stiles to help pick out a tree. Cora, Erica and Boyd had gone Christmas shopping, hoping to beat the shopping rush.

Stiles hopped in the back of the jeep and kept up a running commentary all the way to the Christmas tree farm. He talked about what he wanted to do at uni, pestered Derek about criminology, and started musing about Christmas menus.

“Peanut butter.”

“What?” Stiles looked up and caught Derek’s eyes in the car mirror.

Laura started sniggering. “Peanut butter cookies. They’re his favourite. You should make some for his birthday.”

“When’s your birthday?”

Laura laughed, “Derbear’s a Christmas baby. He hates it….I think it has something to do with not getting as many presents.”

Choosing a tree was fun. Stiles hadn’t ever had a real tree, his mum had insisted on giant fake one because of her pollen allergies. When she died, Stiles and the Sheriff couldn’t make themselves use anything else.

He told all this to Derek, while Laura ran forward and looked at tree, practically bouncing with excitement.

“You look like a rabbit,” Derek teased his sister, who proceeded to stick her tongue out.

“Your face is a rabbit.”

“Great comeback there Laura.”

“Shut your face, palebutt.”

Stiles snickered, “palebutt?”

“Yeah, one summer, Derek decided he’d be a beach bum. He spent the summer with Boyd camping by the sea. He came home all tanned, except for his butt. Which looked like the moon.”

Derek’s ears had turned an adorable shade of pink, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets while he glared at his sister. “Yeah well you shouldn’t have even been in my room!”

“Whatever baby bro, not the most embarrassing thing I’ve walked in on you doing.”

Stiles momentarily froze, brain distracted by thoughts of exactly what Derek could have been doing.

“Oh my god, Laura. You can shut up now. Anytime. And you wonder why I don’t come home that often.”

“This is nice.” Both siblings turned to look at Stiles who was staring at them with a fond expression on his face. “I meant the tree. Behind you.”

Laura ran off to pay while one of the farm helpers, Bruce, came over with an axe. Stiles and Derek looked on as he hacked away at the base of the tree, Stiles making lumberjack jokes while Derek rolled his eyes and tried to pretend that he didn’t find them funny. Bruce looked up and laughed at Stiles, then seemed to trip over nothing and fall into the tree. It tottered and fell before it was meant to. Stiles felt himself being dragged backwards by his collar. He fell back against Derek, whose arm wrapped around him to keep them both steady.

Bruce seemed to be fine. He looked horrified and scrambled up, apologising profusely. Stiles couldn’t help it. He started laughing…he’d almost been squashed by Christmas tree.

Laura came back with the manager who looked at them in confusion.

“Um…Problem?”

Derek finally moved his forearm off Stiles’ chest, but he didn’t take a step back. Stiles was grateful, he was still laughing and he didn’t think he could hold himself up.

Derek tried to explain, but was cut short by a blubbering Bruce who was still apologising and begging not to be fired.

Stiles finally got his breath. “It was an accident. Honestly. Not firing worthy. We’re fine.”

The manager insisted on reimbursing Laura for the tree and offered her a free one for next year.

When they finally got the tree in the car, pine needles everywhere, Laura turned to look at Stiles. “Well, you almost got squashed…but at least we got a free tree. Let’s get it home and then take you out to coffee to say sorry for almost getting you killed.”

\---

Laura decided to stay home and decorate the tree with Anna, Michael, Malia and another Hale baby called David. Derek pulled Stiles back towards the jeep and headed towards the diner in town, grumbling about finding pine needles in the car for weeks.

Stiles thought being with Derek alone would be awkward. He didn’t really know him well. It turned out to be easy. Derek actually talked. He talked about his favourite classes, and about how he wanted to apply to the police academy when he got back. How he knew he didn’t really need to leave for uni to work for the Sheriff’s department, but how he really liked studying. He talked about not actually wanting to leave Beacon Hills for good because he missed his family. Even Laura.

For once, Stiles was quiet and simply listened.

Derek seemed to notice his silence. “I didn’t mean to just talk at you. Sorry. What do you want to do? Once you finish at school? You’ve only got a year left right?”

“No! I didn’t mind. I think you’ll make a good cop. And I get why you miss your family, they’re pretty great. I guess I’d like to do something creative. Maybe something to do with computers? Scott and I always wanted to make a video game together. Who knows, maybe that might actually happen one day. I don’t know where I want to go when I leave. I mean. I considered New York? But I don’t know if I could actually live in a city by myself.”

“Well.. You’d know me. You could come visit before you decide. Figure out if you like the city.”

Stiles smiled, “You’d be ok with that? Showing me the sights? Letting me sleep on your couch and eating your food?”

“I can think of worse things.”

Stiles went home smiling that night, and when he slept he dreamt of solid warmth and arms around him.

\---

The next day, Cora showed up and demanded to go shopping. She still had people to buy for.

Stiles trailed along behind her as they visited shop after shop. He bought Erica a Catwoman t-shirt, Scott a Batman t-shirt, and Allison an awesome Hawkeye hoody. Lydia was easy to buy for, she’d been eying up a Latin translation of Harry Potter for a while. Stiles had ordered copies. Jackson got a sports calendar and Issac got movie vouchers he could use to take Scott and Allison out on date nights.

He had no idea what to buy for the Hales and he couldn’t exactly afford to buy them all individual gifts. Maybe he’d bake. They powered through cookies fast enough…

Cora complained about being hungry so they sat on a bench and ate terrible burgers and chips.

“So. What did you get Erica?”

Stiles pulled out the t-shirt.

“Really Stiles?”

“What? She loves Catwoman! Look at what I got Scott and Ally!”

Cora looked at Stiles with something like realisation on her face. He didn’t like it.

“What? Your face is doing a terrifying thing.”

“You really need to talk to Erica. Sooner might be better.”

\---

Talia Hale held the pre-Christmas party to end all other actual Christmas parties. The food was amazing, the house was decorated with only the most adorable kitsch, and the Sheriff spent the night stealing extra steak when Stiles was distracted.

His son was currently very distracted, struggling to get out from under a pile of children who’d run into the room and leapt onto him with war cries.

“Mercy, oh my god no tickling! Someone get them off!”

Scott giggled in a corner and made no move to help, instead slinging an arm around Cora as Allison, Issac and Boyd lounged around and talked about movies. Lydia and Laura had disappeared upstairs and Derek was looking pained as he listened to Jackson talk about lacrosse.

“Derek always hated team sports.” Daniel Hale stood by the Sheriff and laughed at the look on his son’s face. “He was always happier walking around with his head in the clouds by himself, or with Laura.”

“Stiles was the same, he only really joined lacrosse because of Scott.”

The Sheriff heard a giggle behind him and looked around to see Erica with her hand over her mouth.

“This never gets old,” she bounced over to the children and proceeded to pile on top of them as opposed to moving them off.

“Erica Reyes. You are the worst ever. Oow elbow to the spleen!”

Derek snorted and took pity on Stiles, rolling Erica off the children and then pulling the children off Stiles. “Malia…no sitting…how many times…if you don’t get off Stiles you don’t get desert!”

“Well…that worked,” Stiles panted as he lay on the ground and gazed up at Derek. Erica laughed and went over to talk to Boyd as Derek gave Stiles a hand up.

The Sheriff watched as Stiles stuck by Derek the whole night, stealing mushrooms off his plate, and flailing wildly while explaining the awesomeness of Xmen. Derek, for his part, didn’t seem to mind the food stealing…going back for seconds and pushing the mushrooms towards Stiles. He seemed to like listening to Stiles talk. John Stilinski looked on in exasperation as his son seemed to vibrate with delight. He watched the little touches that Stiles landed on Derek, on his shoulders and his hands. Despite his flailing, Stiles wasn’t actually free with his touches (unless you were Scott…or a small child). Stiles was fine with casual touches from other people, but he rarely ever initiated anything tactile. John thought he knew what was happening here. But it was best to let Stiles figure it out in his own time…it always was.

\---

Stiles felt guilty. He was going to talk to Erica. He was! He had a speech and everything; he’d even typed it up!  Every time he tried, Erica was dragged away by people to either help them shopping, or to go to the movies, or to babysit tiny Hales.

Stiles sighed as once again found himself wrist deep in dough in his kitchen. Baking Christmas cookies for the Hales was a big job, it was going to keep him home all day. He’d been wracking his brains trying to think of a birthday present for Derek. He was making peanut butter cookies for Derek, but he was making all the Hales cookies. It couldn’t be much fun being a Christmas baby, so Stiles was determined to get him something special. He looked up at the Sheriff, sitting at the table, sipping coffee and going through case files when it him.

“Hey Dad, you know Derek?

The Sheriff quirked an eyebrow, “Derek Hale…wearer of the leather jacket? Yeah…he came to talk to me about work a few months ago. Also, you’ve mentioned him…you know…a few times.”

“So I need to ask you for a favour.”

\---

Derek drove up to the Stilinski house early the next morning. Stiles had called him last night and asked him to come round in the morning, had said he needed help with something. The cruiser was in the driveway, parked alongside the jeep. The Sheriff opened the door, “Get in here son. Stiles has been pacing a hole the carpet.”

“Dad! Shut…oh, hi Derek. So, you made it.”

The Sheriff shook his head and sighed, “Right, let’s get this over with before Stiles embarrasses himself into a coma. Derek, I hear that you’re doing well in your papers. My son seems to think you’d find a ride along useful. Congratulations, you get to spend a week shadowing me.”

Derek’s eyebrows looked like they had disappeared off his face, his mouth opened in a silent o and his ears had turned pink. Stiles had to look away, it was adorable.

“You organised this? Why?” Derek took a step towards Stiles.

“Well. You seemed really keen on a job with Dad, and you talked about your classes like you loved them and this would be really good on a CV. Also, I couldn’t think of anything to get you for your birthday.”

“This is for my birthday. You do this for my birthday.”

“Yes? Is it not ok?…oh ok, hugs. Hugs are cool.” Stiles smiled into Derek’s neck, the feeling of his stubble sending a shiver down Stiles’ back.

The Sheriff cleared his throat. “Derek, ready for a day of thrilling police work? We need to leave if we want coffee that doesn’t taste like dish water.”

“Dude, I am trusting you not to let my dad snack on donuts. No shitty burgers either!”

Stiles spent the day baking and playing video games with Scott.

Apparently Erica, Allison and Cora were out at a movie, something to do with an animated dragon?

He decided to cook, because he knew if he didn’t the sheriff would insist of take away from his favourite greasy Chinese restaurant.

Finally, after what seemed to be an age, the door opened and his dad walked in a tired looking Derek trailing behind him.

“I cooked. There’s enough for three of us…don’t argue Derek, I already texted Talia to tell her not to bother with dinner for you all of this week.”

The rest of the week flew by with Derek coming over every morning with coffee for the Sheriff. Stiles cooked, except for the one night he had work. He bet that the two of them bought pizza and pigged out at home. Derek was a horrible enabler who enabled. He’d sneak the Sheriff desert while he distracted Stiles with stories from their day spent ticketing speedsters who didn’t understand road rules, and the one drunk and disorderly the sheriff had to deal with. His dad seemed to like him; he’d promptly printed off forms for the police academy and dropped them in front of a pleased looking Derek.

Stiles became comfortable with his presence, so comfortable that he didn’t even flinch when Derek crept up behind him, hooked his chin over Stiles’ shoulder and took a sniff of the stir fry they would be eating.

Later that night Stiles dreamt of Derek behind him, holding him, kissing up his neck, and woke up panting, his heart beating a mile a minute. He definitely needed to talk to Erica.

\---

It was Derek’s last day of the week- long ride along. Stiles was making last minute additions to the Stilinski Christmas decorations.

“Hey guys, I’m in the living room.”

John walked in to see his son perched on a chair, tying a sprig of mistletoe to a light fixture on the ceiling. Subtle, his son was not.

Derek ambled in, saying something about making dinner for them when he noticed Stiles and the mistletoe and went pale. He started coughing and backing up, “Um..kitchen. Yes. I’m gonna go…and cook. Now,” was all he got out before practically sprinting from the room.

Stiles shared a look with the Sheriff before hopping off the chair and going to find Derek.

“Are you…ok?”

“Fine…fine…where did you put the chicken pieces? Never mind, I found them.”

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I can go take it down.”

“No! No…It’s just, I’m allergic, most of my family is actually.”

Stiles popped himself up onto the counter watching Derek line up ingredients, “Your family is allergic to mistletoe. Well, that’s…weird. But I saw some at your house!”

“Fake.”

“Right, ok I’m definitely taking it down now. I’ll be back to chop stuff ok.”

Derek started chopping apricots and carrots. That had been close.

He jumped slightly, the mistletoe has messed with his sense of smell and he hadn’t noticed Stiles until he was right behind him.

“Could you get the oil heated in a pan? I’ll finish chopping.”

Stiles got out a pan, making as much noise as possible before following Derek’s instructions. “I thought I said I’d chop?”

“I said I’d cook…that involves doing the hard stuff. Not making you do it for me.”

“So…whatcha making anyway?”

“Apricot Chicken, Cora’s favourite. I had to learn or she wouldn’t stop bitching when she came to visit in New York.”

Derek finally finished chopping and moved the board over the pan so he could drop ingredients in. Unfortunately, Stiles had left the heat on high, and oil splashed up, coating the back of his hand. He hissed, but Stiles panicked enough for the both of them.

“Holy Shit, Derek! Oh my god, are you ok? Here let me see. No…you are not fine, dick, just let me look.”

Stiles finally managed to gently grab Derek’s hand. He gasped as he watched the reddened skin slowly fad as the burns disappeared, until the skin was as smooth as it had been before. He looked up to see Derek’s eye flash an unnatural blue. He could feel his heart speeding up and he took a step backwards.

Derek was silent, eyes tracking his movements.

“What just happened? How did you…do that?”

“Stiles…Stiles calm down.” Derek stepped forward and rested his hand on Stiles’ chest. “Your heart’s going crazy. I promise I’ll tell you. But you need to calm down.”

Stiles finally slumped forward, and looked up at Derek. “I’m calm. Well calmish. Well calm enough that I’m not going crazy over the disco eyes or instant healing…so, tell me.”

“Werewolves.” Derek winced, he’d planned a buildup to that but it just…slipped out. “Most of my family are werewolves. We were born this way. Some are humans though, like Cora and Michael, my dad’s human too. We…Stiles?”

Stiles had a hand on Derek’s face, fingers slowly walking up the bridge of his nose, running over his eyebrows before settling under his eyes. “Show me. Show me again.”

Derek swallowed and shifted. Stiles fingers wandered again, tickling the furrowed ridge of his forehead before touching his sideburns. “Oh my god. This is why Laura kept laughing about the puppy pile jokes! Are you dangerous? Who else knows?”

“Of course we aren’t! We’re the same people you’ve gotten to know…just with a few added bonuses…like healing. Erica and Boyd know. We only tell the people we trust. Mum was going to tell you eventually. Oh god. She’s going to kill me.”

“Erica knew?”

“Stiles…go talk to her. I think she might be able to help you…process.”

Stiles looked down at his shaking hands and nodded. “I’m going to panic when you leave, which you should. Now. I need time to think. I can’t believe Erica didn’t tell me!”

Derek’s look of exasperation shone through his shifted face just as well as it did when he actually had eyebrows. He shifted back and left after telling the Sheriff about some family emergency.

Stiles slept badly that night. He tossed and turned, and dreamt of Derek spread over him, behind him, licking down his throat and biting down on his collar bone. None of this was different from the last few nights, except for the fact that the Derek in his dreams now had eyes that flashed blue and claws that lightly ran down Stiles’ skin.

Time to talk to Erica.

\---

Erica had been lounging in the living room watching Tv with Boyd and trying to make him laugh when Derek burst in.

“Hey Der… You ok? You look like shit.”

He collapsed onto the couch next to her and put his head in his hands. “Stiles knows…about werewolves…I got hurt…I healed, he panicked…so I told him.”

“And?” Boyd leaned forward and frowned, “What did he do?”

“He touched me.”

“He what?!”

“Oh my god, Erica, not like that…he just…wasn’t afraid…shocked but not afraid…I almost expected him to ask where my eyebrows went. He’s going to need to talk to you.”

Erica watched Derek thoughtfully through dinner. She knew he’d been spending a lot of time at the Stilinski residence, and a lot of time with Stiles in general. Derek was usually quiet, he didn’t really talk to people except for his family and Boyd. But he willingly spent time with Stiles, and when he wasn’t with him, he talked about him. Laura had taken to telling him off for mooning about Stiles when she thought Erica couldn’t hear her. Erica might not be a wolf, but Cora and she had learned to be sneaky enough to get round a pack of werewolves. She liked Stiles, but for some reason she didn’t find herself jealous at the possibility of Derek liking Stiles. If anything she felt relieved. The more time she spent with Boyd, the more she realised that her feelings for Stiles were…different. Stiles made her happy, it was true. They liked the same things, they could talk for hours. But Boyd was different. Hearing Boyd laugh made something warm curl up in her chest. Hugging him made her melt and feel warm in a way that never happened with Stiles. They didn’t like all the same things, they argued over small things all the time and it made Erica feel stupidly happy. Yes, talking to Stiles would be a good thing.

\---

Stiles showed up early in the morning with coffee for Erica, who smiled nervously when she opened the door. “Can we talk?”

She nodded and led him into the empty living room.

“You didn’t tell me about werewolves. Why?”

“It’s not my story to tell Stiles. It’s a secret for a reason. Can you imagine what people would do if they found out? How much danger our friends would be in? The Hales gave me a family. I couldn’t just betray their trust.”

Stiles sighed and dropped his head into his arms. “What else can they do? Apart from the healing and the flashing eyes and disappearing eyebrows?”

“Well…they’re fast. Strong too. Talia can shift into an actual wolf. She’s the alpha…head of the Hales as it were. They can sniff you out anywhere once they have your scent. Um…they have great hearing, and they like cuddles.”

He snorted, “I thought that was just a weird baby Hale thing.”

Erica laughed, “In part I suppose, but touch is a way of marking you as family. They’ve been doing that to you for a while now. But Stiles…there’s something else I need to talk to you about.”

“Yeah…I…me to. Let me go first? Otherwise I feel like I’ll never get it out. Look, you’re great. I love spending time with you. I just think that maybe we work better as friends than…anything else.”

“Oh thank god,” Erica let out a breath. “I wanted to say the same thing. We make a great team, but you’ve not been my boyfriend have you? Just like I haven’t really been your girlfriend….We’ve both just been good friends the whole time. Besides, I tried to imagine kissing and it felt like I was thinking of kissing Derek…you’re like a brother you know.”

“Ouch! But…um, same. I felt the same way when I tried too. There’s something else. I know we’re not together, and we haven’t really been the whole time…but it still feels weird. I think maybe I have been into someone else…well definitely, actually.”

“Derek,” Erica stated with a satisfied smirk.                     

“Wait, what, how did you know?!”

“Oh please, Stiles. You look at him like you want to do the horizontal tango…or just snuggle…either way. Called it! When did you realise?”

He laughed, “Probably sometime while you had temporary amnesia.”

Cora burst into the room, “I knew it! I knew Stiles wasn’t the guy you were mooning about before the accident! I knew it! It’s Boyd isn’t it?”

“Cora!” Laura chased after her sister, trying to pull her out of the room.

Erica sighed and nodded. Stiles gave a reassuring smile…Boyd’s hatred of him made sense now. Retrospect was a bitch. He kept smiling till he saw Derek by the door behind Laura and then froze. Oh god. How much had he heard? Stiles heart started beating frantically as he caught Derek’s eyes. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t be here. Not now. Derek probably didn’t even like him as anything more than a friend! He didn’t even know if Derek was attracted to men!

Stiles ran.

\---

Stiles stayed away from the Hales for a while. He called in sick at the fair so he wouldn’t have to see them. Christmas Day was quiet. He and his dad had Christmas lunch with Scott and his mum. Stiles went home and watched youtube videos of cats. He wondered what Derek was doing for his birthday. He was embarrassed. Derek was older, had his life together. And here was Stiles, still in highschool and having wet dreams about him.

He also felt a bit weird about the werewolf thing. He didn’t think that they would hurt him or anything! He just started going over their past interactions and trying to pick out particularly werewolfy behaviour.

He could only skive off work for so long before his bank balance, and Scott, started badgering him about getting back. The fair was open for a limited time between boxing and new years days so Stile took himself back to work.

The day started off harmless enough, till he looked out of the booth and saw Anna, Michael and Malia looking up at him with pouting faces.  He sighed and got out of the booth, while Scott watched on with unabashed curiosity.

“Hi guys.”

Malia walked up to him and then just kept going till her head was buried in his stomach.

She looked up and Stiles saw her eyes flash blue, just like Derek’s. “Don’t you love us anymore Stiles? You missed Christmas! And Der Der’s birthday! He’s sad!”

“Oh bubs, of course I still love you. All of you. Come here,” Stiles dropped to his knees and dragged the three of them into a hug.

Anna scowled at him before huffing and giving him a hug back. “Derek said to give this to you.”

She held out a piece of paper with an untidy scrawl taking up most of it.

_You missed Christmas, don’t miss New Years. Everyone misses you. I miss you too. Don’t make me drag you over on the day._

_-Derek_

\---

Stiles swallowed as he drove up to the house. Scott and the others would be there too, Lydia had insisted. There was no way she was missing a Hale New Years bash. He parked the car and got out, only to be tackled by blurry shape and found himself staring up at glowing eyes.

“Oh for heaven’s sake Malia!” Laura came crashing forward and looked down at Stiles. “Um…hi. You ok down there? You know what…Derek can handle this. Derek! Stiles is here and Malia is playing sit on the human!”

She hadn’t even yelled, but Derek heard her and came out the house sighing. Laura looked between Stiles and Derek before cackling and heading inside.

“Malia, get off Stiles.”

“No! I want Stiles time,” the tiny adorably terrifying werewolf growled before tucking her head into Stiles’ shoulder.

Derek sighed and sat down at the ground by Stiles, and ran his hands through his cousin’s hair.

“She missed you. They all did.”

Stiles swallowed, “Did you?”

Derek’s hand moved from Malia’s hair to Stiles’. “Yes. Stiles you should have waited to talk to me. Why did you run?”

“What do you mean why?! You’re…you! You go to university. You’re gonna be a cop! You look like…well…that. And I’m a nerdy high schooler! I ran because I was embarrassed!”

“You’re the same person who listens when I go on and on about my classes. You know how I like my coffee. You’re smart, and funny. You get on with my crazy family. You’re here, even though we’re werewolves and you’re probably still freaking out about that! Besides, shadowing your dad, no one’s ever done something like that for me! People usually ask me why I would want to work in a backwater like Beacon Hills when I could be in New York. Besides…you….look like you…I thought Laura would laugh herself hoarse every time I kept staring at you when you wore your glasses.”

Stiles looked up, mouth open, and couldn’t find anything to say. He just grabbed Derek’s hand and held on.

Laura, who must have heard the whole story (stupid werewolf hearing), finally came to drag Malia away with the promise of desert before dinner. She ruffled Derek’s hair as she left, laughing as her brother tried to bat her hand away.

“So…what do we do now?” Stiles sat up. He still hadn’t let go of Derek.

“Well we could get off the ground and go see the others inside?”

Stiles spotted Erica cozied up to Boyd on the love seat when they went into the living room. He gave her a thumbs up while she leered at Stiles and pointedly looked at his hand, which was still nestled in Derek’s.

It was a good night. Scott and the others showed up. Lydia and Laura holed up together on a couch, whispering furiously to each other while Jackson, Cora, Erica and Boyd played cards on the floor by their feet. Erica casually leaned over and planted a kiss on Boyd’s smiling face. The Sheriff had showed up and was drinking with Talia and Daniel. The children had run around playing an odd version tag till they all dropped off one by one. Scott, Allison and Issac were wrapped up in each other on a couch playing COD. Allison was winning, as usual. At midnight, Derek pulled Stiles outside onto the porch and wrapped his arms around him.

“Watch,” Stiles shivered as Derek’s breath ghosted against the back of his ear.

Fireworks shot up over the tree line and exploded into showers of sparks. Derek turned Stiles around and smiled at him, “You know that saying about New Years? The one where you do what you were doing at midnight for the rest of the year?”

Stiles nodded, the tips his ears turning red.

Derek shuffled closer still, ran his hands up Stiles back till they cupped the back of his head and finally brought their lips together. The kiss started chaste, but when Derek opened his mouth and Stiles let his tongue slip inside, chaste went to hell. He pushed Derek up against a wall and kissed him as though he wanted to sink into him. Derek finally put a hand up, created space between their bodies.

“As fun as that was. Your dad’s here somewhere and has a gun. I don’t really want to get shot. Besides, you’re underage and if we keep doing this I’m going to end up breaking laws I’d rather not break.”

Stiles smiled and nuzzled into him, “Fine with me.”

The Sheriff looked smug when they walked back into the house and held out his hand for Talia to pass him a twenty dollar note.

She shrugged, “They’re both idiots. I thought it would take longer.”

\---

Epilogue

Stiles did visit Derek in New York. He left Beacon Hills with a stern reminder about the fact that he was still underage. The big city was nice. Derek took him out. Derek showed him the campus. They had dinner with Boyd.

Later that year Derek came back to Beacon Hills for Stiles’ graduation, sitting in the same row as his Dad.

Stiles decided that the local community college was more his speed. Besides, he’d gotten a job at a small company which his friend Danny had started straight out of school. He worked with computers and code, making the game with Scott looked less like an impossibility.

Derek finished his final year and came back to Beacon Hills to enrol in the police academy.

Stiles turned 18, and yes. He had all the sex, multiple times, in multiple positions. It was glorious. Especially when he realised that Derek would unconsciously partially shift sometimes and shred the sheets. They spent a lot on sheets. It was definitely worth it.                                                       

The End.

 


End file.
